How would you fix a problem in your country? A president responded: “That IPOB is just like a dot in a circle. Even if they want to exit, they will have no access to anywhere.

“And the way they are spread all over the country, having businesses and properties, I don’t think IPOB knows what they are talking about.

“In any case, we say we’ll talk to them in the language that they understand. We’ll organise the police and the military to pursue them.” – Mr. Buhari, President of Nigeria in AriseTV interview

Note the phrase “a dot in a circle” and the most unfortunate, equating IPOB to the whole Igbo Nation. 

Mr. President, I am very disappointed with your view of Nigeria and Southeast Nigeria. As a General, I am very confident that you attended the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Kuru where they taught you about the nation. 

You fought in the Biafra war. But one of the finest moments in Nigeria was when the cholera vaccine invented during the Biafra war by Prof Njoku Obi was later used by WHO to stop the Kano cholera outbreak in 1972. Two things happened there: Nigeria was uniting and the nation was moving on! Yet, you never allow this to just go!

You keep missing moments to bring the nation together. Associating lawbreakers with a tribe is unfortunate. You had an opportunity to say the “dot people” are everywhere in Nigeria, and those causing problems do not represent them. That the “dot people” are everywhere in Nigeria is a sign they actually believe in Nigeria.

Mr. President, open your mind to be a president for ALL NIGERIANS. Live your moment. Everyone is a victim in Nigeria but you can help ALL RISE.

This is Sunday, a day of resurrection. The Day many remember for taking them out of the miry clay into the greener pastures of hope. But as mothers withdraw their kids from schools in Southeast Nigeria due to collateral damages from the Police and army who are looking for lawbreakers, Nigeria is removing ladders for the future.

As mothers prefer to keep their children due to fear of being kidnapped in the northern part of Nigeria, Nigeria is removing ladders to the future. As Southwest loads with killer herdsmen and areas like Benue fully loaded, causing fears, Nigeria removes the ladder from the base!

Today, Nigeria’s most important infrastructure is SECURITY, and if we cannot build it immediately, nothing makes sense. Join me to tell our political leaders, do not REMOVE THE LADDER because if our young people cannot be in school, we cannot predict the future. In the Southeast, for example, students are leaving hostels, preferring to abandon university education over being rounded up by the police and army.

#KeepTheLadder

MultiChoice has gone betting and it likes what it sees. The media giant is increasing its stake from 20% to 49% in BetKing in a US$281 million deal: “MultiChoice will make a formal offer of around R4 billion (USD281.5m) to increase its stake in Blue Lake Ventures Limited (BetKing) from 20% to 49%, the company has announced.” This is strategic because there are many products within MultiChoice which will capture value via sports betting. 

The board approved the formal offer to acquire more of the sports betting company on 10 June 2021.

It said that the offer is subject to the substantive conditions being met and the transaction becoming effective.

The equity investment will also result in payment of the contingent consideration of USD31m (ZAR0.5bn) relating to the acquisition of the first 20% in BetKing.

This comes after MultiChoice announced in November last year that it had acquired a 20% stake in BetKing for approximately R1.8 billion.

“Sports betting is an interesting market that is aligned to our Pay-TV business,” MultiChoice Group CEO Calvo Mawela said at the time.

“We have a lot of sport on our platform, and many people that are betting watch more games.”

BetKing started in Nigeria and Mawela said that it has shown rapid growth over the past two and a half years.

“They plan to be pan-African and will be entering South Africa at some stage too,” Mawela said.

This will reverse the lost value where MultiChoice was creating value for betting websites. Now, it wants to keep the value in-house through BetKing. Indeed, MultiChoice/DStv was not capturing any of those massive betting revenues. During the last edition of BBNaija, many betting sites built products around BBNaija, and many of them made tons of money.

For DStv, buying a part of BetKing is to keep that value in house by now using the betting platform as its official partner. Possibly, through that, it would capture value. This is a good example of a Double Play Strategy: MultiChoice is going to capture tons of monetary value through BetKing with the show serving as the One Oasis.

Sudan’s  former ruler, Omar al-Bashir, won many fights for three decades. He mastered the politics of UN. He overcame America and South Sudan. He triumphed over IMF and World Bank. He fought rebels, friends and enemies – and won. But at the end, he fell because of BREAD. Yes, bread – so simple and harmless- brought down one of the last surviving yoyo men of Africa.

As you think of that, I bring what will destroy Bitcoin despite any optimistic exuberance pushed by its adherents. Simply, the cryptocurrency is developing a reputation as the currency for criminals to receive illegal payments for ransomware. So, if you extrapolate, even if Bitcoin itself is not directly affected by hacking and ransomware, the fact that many criminals have chosen it will likely push many countries to go hard on it.

The latest is that “meat supplier JBS USA Holdings has said it paid out an $11 million ransom in Bitcoin to cybercriminals.” Just a few weeks ago, Colonial Pipeline paid out millions of dollars  via Bitcoin to criminals – and thank goodness, the FBI was able to recover some of that back. Yes, “seizure of more than half of the company’s payment cuts against crypto’s reputation as an untraceable financial medium for hackers.”

So, if the world leaders see Bitcoin as the choice for criminals, expect them to open a new playbook on this currency. And that playbook may not be palatable for hodlers.

Shine your eyes.

Meat supplier JBS USA Holdings has said it paid out an $11 million ransom in Bitcoin to cybercriminals. The company’s chief executive told The Wall Street Journal that the recent ransomware attack temporarily knocked out plants which handle about one-fifth of the meat supply for the U.S. Based in Brazil, JBS Holdings is the world’s largest meat supplier by sales. Ransomware attacks have spiked; last month, Colonial Pipeline paid a total of $4.4 million in Bitcoin to resume its pipeline — of which the Justice Department managed to retrieve roughly $2.3 million of the ransom paid to the Russian hackers.

• The FBI recovered roughly half of the ransom paid by the Colonial Pipeline by tracking a “publicly visible bitcoin ledger,” reports The Wall Street Journal, then pouncing when hackers performed a transfer to a virtual address the bureau had access to.

All is getting set for Blue Origin’s space trip that will have the world richest man, Jeff Bezos as passenger. An auction for the ride next month alongside Bezos and his brother ended with a winning $28 million bid Saturday. ABC has the report.

The Amazon founder’s rocket company, Blue Origin, did not disclose the winner’s name following the live online auction. The identity will be revealed in a couple weeks — closer to the brief up-and-down flight from West Texas on July 20, the 52nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moon landing.

It will be the first launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket with people on board, kicking off the company’s space tourism business. Fifteen previous test flights of the reusable rocket and capsule since 2015 — short hops lasting about 10 minutes — were all successful.

Saturday’s auction followed more than a month of online bidding that reached $4.8 million by Friday. More than 7,500 people from 159 countries registered to bid, according to Blue Origin. More than 20 bidders — the high rollers — took part in Saturday’s auction.

Bezos announced Monday that he and his younger brother, Mark, would be on board New Shepard’s first crew flight; the news quickly boosted bidding. The winning amount is being donated to Blue Origin’s Club for the Future, an educational effort to promote science and tech among young people.

The completely automated capsule can carry up to six passengers, each with their own big window. Blue Origin’s top sales director, Ariane Cornell, said following the auction that the fourth and final seat on the debut crew flight will be announced soon.

While Blue Origin has yet to open ticket sales to the public or divulge prices, the success of this trip will mean wider opportunity for the public, wishing to have a taste of space travel.

Since the past 10 years, the goal of developing commercial space aircrafts has gained momentum, with many billionaires putting in resources to make it happen. Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Atlantic is also planning on conducting flights to suborbital space for ultra-wealthy thrill seekers, putting up competition with Blue Origin and SpaceX. Like Bezos, the British billionaire said he would be among the first to ride on Virgin Galactic’s rocket-powered plane which is expected to fly later this year.

Blue Origin is a six-seater capsule and 59-foot rocket, it’s crew will tear the rocket toward the edge of space on a 11-minute flight that’ll reach more than 60 miles above Earth.